REVILING and MONOMACHY AS BATTLE- PRELUDES in ANCIENT WARFARE by J. J. Glticlc (University of South Africa) in Battle Accounts O
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REVILING AND MONOMACHY AS BATTLE PRELUDES IN ANCIENT WARFARE by J. J. Glticlc (University of South Africa) In battle accounts of ancient literature we often encounter two rather strange phenomena: (a) an exchange of abuse and taunting between the two opposing lines, (b) individual and group combats. These apparently peculiar customs seem to have been common practice with the peoples around the Mediterranean basin up to about the first half of the first millenium B.c. They were noted by historians, ancient and modern (indeed they are much too frequent to be overlooked), but they were somewhat glossed over.1 The moderns, as a rule, seem to agree with the opinion of the ancients who claimed that swearing and cussing was in concert with heated emotions 2 and that duel combats were fought by chosen warriors instead of an all-out battle between the factions in order to save unnecessary bloodshed. 3 Some moderns again see in the duels parallels to knight-combats of mediaeval times 4-a rather unfortunate anachronism. 1. The only special, though indirect, attention of merit was given to monomachy by Y. Yadin, Let the Youths Play, Jerusalem 1947, a monograph demonstrating the analogy between the hitherto obscure verses in I Sam. 2: 12-17 and their connexion with some reliefs discovered at Tel-Halaf. However, Yadin's interest lay mainly in the fighting methods employed in duels and not in the motives for the fighting themselves. Cf. Y. Yadin, The Art of Wwfare in Biblical Lands in the Light of Archaeological Discovery, London 1963, pp. 71-73, 267, 354. The dissertation of G. Deecke, De Hectoris et Aiacis Certamine Singulari, Goettingen 1906, adds but little to the elucidation of the problems treated here. As to reviling during and prior to battles some scholars put it down to wrath or to related emotions, peculiar to an atmosphere of war. Cf. F. von Trojan, Handlungstypen im Epos: die homerische I!ias, Mtinchen 1928, pp. 10, 50 and see below. H . Droysen in his Heerwesen und Kriegfiihrung der Griechen, Frey burg 1889, does not seem to take cognisance of these phenomena. 2. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Ant. Rom. (to which all future references will be) III 19.1. 3. Homer, Iliad III 321-323: f!J.liV o~ au cptMtll'tlllCili op1Ctll1ttcrtu yEvecr9at; Dio Cassius .... II 7.3 (and Zonaras 7.6); Dionysius III 11-12. Cf. D. B. Monro, Homer: Iliad, Books I-XII, Oxford 1946, p. 285; in his note to IV 527 and in his introductory remarks to Ch. V, p. 294, Monro claims, and probably rightly, that some of the combats related are but individual exploits in actual battles. Cf. Leaf and Bayfield, The Iliad of Homer, London 1952, p. 294; Yadin, op. cit. p. 354; Wace and Stubbings, A Companion to Homer, London, 1962, p. 53. 4. J. Kromayer and G. Veith, Heenvesen und Kriegsfiihrung der Griechen und Romer, Miinchen 1928, p. 20 (Kromayer analyses the fight between Ajax and Hector, but a better example might have been the case of Tullus who offered himself to fight the combat, cf. Dionysius III 12.2). Similar opinions are suggested in Spaulding, Nickerson and Wright, Wwfare; A Study of Military Methods from the Earliest Times, London 1924, pp. 37-97. 25 The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that both reviling and mono machy were preludes to battles in primitive warfare and were characteristic of societies in an early or arrested stage of civilisation, marked by a total lack of military discipline. 5 Some of the examples quoted below were actually recorded by such societies, others, notably those from the Iliad and from Roman history, are indicative of earlier legends and historical retrospection. The termination of this pre-organisation stage may be losely dated some time in the first half of first millennium B.C. However, in Egypt and in Mesopotamia state organisations of a nationwide character with standing armies were mostly brought about already in the third and second mil lennium B.C. 6 Similar organisations of comparable size and strength followed, which survived for lesser or longer periods.7 But in the overall picture of the ancient world these were the exceptions rather than the rule. Further more, regular units, where and when they existed, were mostly employed for maintaining internal security,8 though in times of war they might have formed the nucleus of the fighting force, the bulk of which consisted un doubtedly of called-up men. 9 In those days the bearing of arms was the privilege and duty of free citizens but their ranks were occasionally swelled by second and third class subjects.10 The difference between trained and volunteer forces at that time was such that a few dozen regulars could tilt the balance of power in the wars between the city-states.U 5. Q. Wright, A Study of War, Chicago 1951, Vol. 1 pp. 39, 144, et passim; M. R. David, The Evolution of War, New-Haven 1929, passim; Spaulding, Nickerson and Wright, op. Cit. pp. 1-265; H. Delbrueck, Geschichte der Kriegskunst im Rahmen der po!itischen Ge schichte, Berlin 1962, Voi. I, passim. 6. In this respect, the pictorial presentations of antiquity offer us a clearer view of the ancient armies than literary descriptions do. Cf. the reliefs from Lagash (middle of the third millennium B.c.; see E. de Sarzec, Decouvertes en Chaldee, Paris 1884-1912, pp. 193-194), and the groups of statuettes from the Middle-Kingdom of Egypt (turn of the third millennium B.c.). See J. B. Pritchard, The Ancient Near East in Pictures, Princeton 1954, p. 55 (see also pp. 95-96). In these, units appear uniformly equipped, marching in army order, which are clear signs of proper military organisation and training. 7. 0. R. Gurney, The Hittites, 1952, p. 142. 8. J. B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts (hereafter referred to as ANET), Prince ton 1955, pp. 18-22-The Story of Sinuhe, line 19. The happenings should have taken place in the 20th century B.C. Cf. the guard units of king David and his house, referred to as the Cherethites and Pelethites (II Sam. 8:18, 20:7 et passim. According to 15:18, idem, in David's time they numbered six hundred men-a most acceptable figure.) 9. Cf. ANET p. 281, the Annals of Adad-Nirari Ill, 'In the fifth year ... I called up the country ... to march against .. .' 10. The Ancient East had an elaborate 'caste system' as the Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite and other law-codes indicate. Cf. the Helots, the neodamodes, the mothones etc. of Sparta. 11. See the El-Amarna letters, J. A. Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna Tafeln, Leipzig 1907- 1915. In letter No. 244, Biridiya, the king of Megiddo, asks Pharao for 'one hundred soldiers'. No. 289 mentions the dispatch of 'twenty' soldiers; Abdu-Heba, the king of Jerusalem, asks for 'fifty' soldiers 'to guard the Jand'-and this in times of war. 26 Up to the time indicated above the greatest part of the Mediterranean world was covered by tiny city-states and confederacies which, for economic reasons, had to rely on poorly equipped volunteer forces of little or no training and of even less discipline. The lack of military preparedness invariably invited aggression from neighbours and a semi-permanent state of war resulted, which prevailed over practically the entire region.12 We may safely assume that in emergencies people in ancient times defended their cities and families as readily as civilised people do today; but most of the wars of ancient times were not born of emergency and did not always grow in proportion to develop into a national crisis. Most of them were conducted for gain; some for gains of a permanent nature,13 others just for plunder and Ioot.14 To such an end sudden attacks by ruse, .,I from ambushes and under cover of darkness, suited the purpose best, thus avoiding open warfare and heavy loss of life-hardly warranted by the objectives.15 The course of these campaigns or expeditions might conceivably have followed this pattern: the raiders, busy with looting, usually tarried, thus allowing those attacked to effect hasty measures of defence; or rumours of 12. See Die El-Amarna Tafeln, 1 ff. Cf. Jd. 17:6; 21 :25 'In those days there was no king in Israel; each man did what was right in his own eyes'. While this statement refers to individual lawlessness, the books, however, reveal a general state of piracy on a tribal and communal level. Cf. Judges and Samuel, passim. Cf. the relationship of Sparta and Messena, in the 8th and 7th century B.C., and indeed in the whole of the Peloponnesian peninsula long before and after. Cf. Thucydides I 4-5. During the first few centuries of Rome's history, intermittent wars between the petty states took place with the sole aim of material gain. This is expressly mentioned in Dio Cassius Book I 5.5-7 (and in Zonaras 7.6.7 and 7.10) and amply demonstrated by Livy (III 15.4 et passim), Dionysius, Dio Cassius and others who described the early times of Roman history. J. B. Bury, A History a/Greece, London 1951, pp. 53-56; H. H. Scullard, A History of the Roman World, from 735 to 146 B.C., London 1951, pp. 33-38. 13. I. J. Brugmans, De Economische Achtergrond van de 001·log, Studium Generale II, Amsterdam 1948-1949, p. 6; D. Loenen, Polemos: een Studie over 001·log in de Griekse Oudheid, Amsterdam 1953, pp. 76, 79, 23-26, et passim.